TACAM R-2

After the disaster at Stalingrad in November 1942, the inadequacy of the 3.7cm gun which armed the Romanian R-2 tank needed to be addressed. Faced with the fact that the R-2 had to stay in active service, the Romanian Army decided to convert the vehicle into a self-propelled gun armed with a captured Soviet 76mm.

The project was entrusted to Colonel Constantin Ghiulai, who had conceived the TACAM T-60. The first prototype of the TACAM R-2 was built between July and September 1943 and by early 1944 it was decided that 40 R-2 tanks would be converted to TACAMs.

The TACAM R-2 was armed with the Soviet 76mm ZIS-3 gun with either Romanian or German made gun sight and fired Romanian Costinescu ammunition (both AP and HE) rather than the original Soviet ammunition. The gun was mounted in a three-sided fighting compartment that was roofed to provide overhead protect for its crew.

The TACAM R-2 enjoyed the same performance as the R-2 but the fighting compartment gave it an unavoidable high profile and the overhang created by the length of gun barrel made trench crossing awkward. The gun was adequate for dealing with the T-34 at ranges of around 500 meters but by the Spring of 1944 the Red Army was fielding the heavy IS-2 tank and the 76mm gun was deemed inadequate for dealing with such a treat.

A proposal was put forward to up-gun the remaining chassis with the excellent TAC 43 Resita 75mm gun or the German ‘88’ but with Romania’s defection to the Allies on 23 August 1944 no further consideration was given to the proposal.